School's Out by Alice Cooper is a great song for beginners to learn. It's nearly all played with downstrokes and the riffs are short and simple. We're going to show you the first riff played in 2 different ways. The first way is how it is done by the band. The second way is easier and sounds equally good, so we recommend learning that instead - especially if you are a beginner. This ActionTab shows all the main rythm guitar riffs for the song. We'll deal with the lead guitar licks etc separately.

Verse Riff - This is how the band plays the signature verse riff. It looks harder than it is. That's because the 1st and 3rd fingers are loosely fretted across the strings, prepared for certain parts of the riff. The riff is short and sweet, just keep repeating it after this little slide.

Verse Riff (easier version) - This is an easier way of playing the same riff, good for beginners. You don't have to use palm muting on the Low E string, you can open pick it instead. However, palm muting gives you more control over the string. You can lightly palm mute it, which will give you the rounded tone of the open string, but still leave enough control to stop the string from ringing out while you use your fingers at the 12 / 14th frets to play the higher parts of the riff.

Try out both versions and see which you prefer. Either sounds good.

Pre-Chorus - This is just some powerchord stabs played before the chorus. Mute the strings with your fretboard hand between stabs to get the right kind of choppy effect.

Chorus - Schoooool's out for Summer!! These are the powerchords played behind the famous chorus. It repeats after this G minor section. Fret the full chord like we show here, that way if you over-strum it will still sound fine.

Interlude - End the chorus with these 3 chords: A5 - A7 - F major Then the guitars do nothing for the rest of the interlude.

The rest of the song is just more of the same riffs. The only real difference is the second interlude and ending of the song. Instead of playing the 3 chords earlier (A5 - A7 - F major), play these 3:

G5 - F major - C major (with G for lowest note)

Have Fun!